<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Lilacs and Living Quarters by LunarLilac</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29036847">Lilacs and Living Quarters</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunarLilac/pseuds/LunarLilac'>LunarLilac</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Henry Stickmin Series (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Post-Toppat King Ending | TK (Henry Stickmin), Power Dynamics, Self-Esteem Issues, Some Humor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 05:00:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,176</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29036847</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunarLilac/pseuds/LunarLilac</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After the launch of the orbital station, Toppat King Henry Stickmin decides to rest up for the night in his new bedroom. He'd told the Toppats exactly how everything should look before getting captured by the Wall. So why is everything wrong?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ellie Rose &amp; Henry Stickmin, Reginald Copperbottom &amp; Henry Stickmin, Reginald Copperbottom &amp; Right Hand Man</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>45</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Lilacs and Living Quarters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hey everybody. Finally got my new computer, and I'm ready to write more about the sticks! Hope you enjoy :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Henry opened the door to his living quarters.</p><p>After five wrong turns, a few unclear instructions from a Toppat he didn’t recognize and finally a call to Reginald, Henry had managed to sort out where his bedroom was on this colossal monstrosity of an orbital base.</p><p>The former chief, for his part, had been somewhat reluctant to help. Reginald had paused briefly and fiddled with his mustache, insisting that the room wasn’t quite ready. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like a room in the guest quarters, just for the night?”</p><p>Henry had glared at him. Guest quarters? He had to be joking. </p><p>Reginald wisely relented, describing in more detail where Henry could find the chief’s living quarters. His bedroom. </p><p>“I could get someone to bring you a map, if you’d like. Chief.” Reginald stood resolutely, arms folded across his chest, chin raised. It was obvious that subservience of any kind did not come naturally to him - he’d added on the title as an afterthought.</p><p>Henry scowled and waved him off. He didn’t need a map, thank you. And if he did, the Toppat King could certainly make his own orders. </p><p>Henry walked into the bedroom and shut the door, a bit harder than necessary, and locked it, a curl of tension seeping out of him. He walked towards the bed, covered with a mountain of purple and gold pillows. Finally, he could really use some peace and -</p><p>He paused, staring down at the bedspread. Purple and gold? He was certain he’d asked for a scarlet and gray color scheme, sometime during the planning months ago. This wasn’t right.</p><p>Actually, none of it looked right. Violet carpeting, plain white walls, oak furniture. Various paintings and ornaments in styles he didn’t care for, carefully placed around the room. A vase of lilacs - he was allergic. Did he just walk into the wrong room by mistake?</p><p>He looked at the wall and froze. A photo of Reginald was above the bed.</p><p>Oh. Well. This was definitely the chief’s room. Just not really Henry’s room.</p><p>Burt had called Reginald “chief” a few hours ago, right before the launch, hadn’t he? </p><p>He sighed and shook his head. He really wasn’t sure what to do about Reginald anymore.  </p><p>Back when Reginald first handed over the airship, it was with the unspoken agreement that Henry wouldn’t have him arrested or killed. That the former chief would remain in a position of power even, though not as powerful as his previous one. </p><p>That Henry’s leadership rested almost entirely on Reginald’s will.</p><p>Who was Henry kidding here, really? He’d been the leader for what - two months, maybe three? Half of that time he spent locked up in the Wall, and the clan had just...moved on. Apparently did everything short of officially re-crown Reginald as the leader in his “unfortunate absence.”</p><p>Had they even looked for him? They’d apparently found a doctor or engineer, maybe both, *someone* to turn Right Hand Man into a cyborg, bring him out of his coma. That couldn’t have been easy, but they’d done it.</p><p>Reginald could do just about anything he put his mind to.</p><p>But no one had come for him. </p><p>And now? Right Hand Man would kill him if he so much as touched Reginald, consequences be damned. And, well, Reginald was popular, for a Toppat chief (former - former Toppat chief). Had overthrown a ruthless leader and reintroduced “civility and class” to the clan - something like that. Locking him up would not be without major consequences, especially after he’d declared to a roomful of Elites how Henry had “truly earned his respect.”</p><p>Like he hadn’t considered dropping him to his death a minute beforehand. A little joke, he’d insisted later. Should have seen his face. Sure.</p><p>He grabbed one of the gaudy pillows off the bed and threw it at Reginald’s smug face, watched the picture frame crash to the ground and break.   </p><p>There. He felt more at home already. </p><p>He sat on the bed and took a few deep breaths, waiting for his heart to slow down. Was he being ridiculous? Reginald had tried to tell him this room wasn’t ready yet and had offered him other accommodations. Had called him chief sincerely, if somewhat awkwardly. </p><p>He was used to working alone - didn’t like people, didn’t like crowds. Being chief had forced him to interact with others a lot more than he was accustomed to, more than he was often comfortable with. And, to his credit, Reginald had made the transition as smooth as possible on the airship, explaining the minute details of the Toppat Clan’s inner workings, culture, work dynamics, *whatever* Henry needed to know.   </p><p>But, well. Maybe he’d just been biding his time. Once he saw an opportunity, he took it. </p><p>No one really wanted Henry around, did they? Not Reginald, Right Hand Man, or any of the other Toppats.</p><p>Henry sniffed, burying his face into a pillow. No, no, get it together. No need to freak out, get emotional. He could figure this out. </p><p>“Henry!” Henry practically jumped at the sound, which was followed by a bunch of quick knocks. “Henry, are you in there? I heard something crash.”</p><p>That was Ellie - had to be. He stood up, tossing the pillow to the ground and walked towards the door, stopping only to wipe his face on his sleeve.</p><p>He unlocked the door, still rattling from her insistent knocking and opened it. Ellie nearly fell over but quickly rebalanced, grabbing the door frame and standing up straight again. Her hands settled on her hips as she scrutinized the room before turning to Henry.</p><p>“Everything alright, Henry?”</p><p>He nodded, and waved her inside, letting the door shut behind them both. And waited.</p><p>She walked straight over to the broken picture frame and picked it up, her eyebrows lowering as her eyes scanned the room’s decorations. Then back to the photo. Finally, back to his face. </p><p>“Thought you said you were allergic to lilacs.”</p><p>Henry’s brow rose. Had he told her that? Maybe...they’d had to travel pretty far to get from the Wall to the launch base. Would’ve been pretty awkward without small talk - but he hadn’t thought she’d paid such close attention.</p><p>He nodded, hesitantly.</p><p>“Well, that’s an easy fix.” She walked over to the vase, picked it up, tilted her head thoughtfully. Then pitched the whole thing into the trash can by the desk. Henry winced at the crash - that looked like an antique. “There. I’ll go tell Reginald to come get the rest of his junk out of here. Tonight. That is, if that’s okay with you, chief?”</p><p>He gawked at her. How had she - ? Well. She certainly knew how to read him.</p><p>“Um, yeah. That sounds good.” </p><p>She smiled sweetly at him and walked back towards the door, grabbing the trash bag full of broken glass on her way. “Cool. Have a good night, Henry.”</p><p>Should he have told her to be gentle with Reginald? Well, she probably wouldn’t kill him, right? Right.</p><p>Maybe he could count on someone after all.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Honestly, the fact that Reginald remains in the clan *at all* following Henry's rise to power seems kinda unrealistic to me - historically, usurpers have almost always killed off the former leaders to help secure their power, as there have been cases where the former leaders attempt to return to power when let off with a lighter sentence (like exile or imprisonment). I know that it's far from the most unrealistic thing in the game, but I thought it would be fun to play with the weird power dynamics that could exist between the current and former chiefs in this ending. </p><p>Plus, Toppat King's Reginald casually tosses around the idea of dropping Henry to his death to his face and expects that to go over well (I get that he's joking, but my god that is a pretty morbid joke in-universe. Much funnier out of universe because of the reference, though). He's very lucky that Ellie didn't hear him say that. </p><p>If you're still waiting on the ending to "A Miscalculation," it's in my queue and will hopefully be done by Sunday, fingers crossed. If you want to know what else I'm working on - I've just about hammered out a timeline for an upcoming longer story, and I have a few short stories I've been meaning to polish up and post, this being one of them (think I started it back in December?).</p><p>Off-topic but...for fellow Stickmin writers, I find it funny that my computer keeps trying to correct Toppats to either Topcats or Toppers, but then also thinks Topcats is wrong sometimes. Funnier still that it still hasn't suggested Top hats.  </p><p>Anyways, if you read this far, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed. Please let me know what you think down in the comments, and have a great day :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>